Which Knife Sharpeners Brand Wins?
This head-to-head test of 9 knife sharpeners options has the measured results for each. See how they ranked and watch the full test video.
Lansky
Price shown in test: 78
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Products are listed in the order they finished.
Sharpness score after 30 passes across hedge apple wood (durability test)
- 1Wicked Edge105
the sharpest (best) result of all sharpeners after the durability test, described as remaining the sharpest despite extremely sharp edges usually being more prone to rolling and dulling
- 2TS Prof TS Prof 360 Blitz1203rd
third best of the durability-tested group, still sharper than the factory edge
- 3KME Precision Knife Sharpening System1102nd
second best of the durability-tested group
- 4Lansky135
tied with Tormek T8 for the durability-tested group, described as just as sharp as the knife's original factory edge
- 5Tormek T8135
tied with Lansky for the durability-tested group, described as the same sharpness as a new blade edge
- 6Work Sharp Ken Onion Ken Onion185
- 7Work Sharp Classic 2 Classic 2300
- 8Speedy Sharp385
described as holding an edge a lot better than the Smith's despite an identical starting sharpness score
- 9Smith's1,040
by far the worst durability result of all 9 sharpeners, described as dulling dramatically
Sharpness score after sharpening
- 2TS Prof TS Prof 360 Blitz85
tied for the sharpest result of all 9 sharpeners along with Wicked Edge
- 3KME Precision Knife Sharpening System903rd
third sharpest of all 9 sharpeners
- 4Lansky95
described as very impressive
- 5Tormek T8100
described as right at 100
- 6Work Sharp Ken Onion Ken Onion170
described as pretty good but noticeably behind the top 5 stone/belt systems
- 7Work Sharp Classic 2 Classic 2260
described as considered sharp for fine cutlery but not quite as sharp as Smith's or Speedy Sharp
- 8Speedy Sharp175
tied numerically with Smith's, described as almost as sharp as the original edge; sharpened in only about 15 seconds, described as very fast
- 9Smith's175
tied numerically with Speedy Sharp, described as not bad for $4, though the resulting edge looked pretty jagged under inspection
- 1Wicked Edgenot tested
Sharpness loss percentage
- 1Wicked Edge19 percent
- 2TS Prof TS Prof 360 Blitz29 percent
the highest (worst) percentage loss of the group given a percentage figure
- 3KME Precision Knife Sharpening System18 percent
- 4Lansky
not explicitly stated as a percentage by the narrator for this brand
- 5Tormek T826 percent
- 6Work Sharp Ken Onion Ken Onion8 percent
the best (lowest) percentage loss of all sharpeners, explicitly called out as coming out on top for this metric; narrator notes it started out less sharp than the top systems, which helped its relative retention
- 7Work Sharp Classic 2 Classic 213 percent
narrator attributes the relatively low percentage loss partly to the fact that it started out considerably less sharp than the other brands, leaving less room to degrade
- 8Speedy Sharpnot tested
- 9Smith'snot tested
All measurements (1 more)+
Sharpness score after sharpening (lower is sharper, measured in grams of downward force on a Best Certified Sharpness Tester)
- 1Wicked Edge85
tied for the sharpest result of all 9 sharpeners along with TS Prof
- 2TS Prof TS Prof 360 Blitznot tested
- 3KME Precision Knife Sharpening Systemnot tested
- 4Lanskynot tested
- 5Tormek T8not tested
- 6Work Sharp Ken Onion Ken Onionnot tested
- 7Work Sharp Classic 2 Classic 2not tested
- 8Speedy Sharpnot tested
- 9Smith'snot tested
How it was tested
- baseline sharpness measurement with a Best Certified Sharpness Tester (grams of downward force to cut test media, lower is sharper)
- deliberate dulling of all test knives by dragging across an aluminum pipe under 2.5 lb of added weight
- sharpness measurement immediately after each sharpener is used to resharpen the dulled knife
- edge durability test: 30 back-and-forth passes across a piece of extremely hard hedge apple wood, followed by a second sharpness measurement, both as an absolute score and as a percentage sharpness loss from the freshly sharpened score
- a scrap-metal knife-making and sharpening demonstration is introduced near the end of the video but no results for it appear anywhere in this transcript; the description confirms 'two of the knife sharpeners used to sharpen a knife built from scrap metal' but this section is effectively a transcript gap with zero narrated data
“Lansky, once again, does a terrific job for a budget knife sharpener and that would definitely be my recommendation for someone just starting out.”
